Luke bet his mum Jay £10 he could read and review all the books in the Independent's list of 50 books for Y7 kids by Christmas. This is the blog of his progress

Monday, 30 April 2012

The Teenager's Survival Kit

Jay Writes -
I'm taking over the blog for a post about celebrating Luke's 13th birthday. He becomes a teenager, with all the baggage that involves. He's written what he knows about it on the previous blog post, but how he truly feels has been pretty negative.
Luke explained that he hated the perception of teenagers society has. He resented that people of his age are characterised as rude, thuggish, aggressive, untrustworthy and antisocial. Between that, spots and exams he was struggling to find a positive way to view the years ahead.

Never one to shy away from a challenge, I set out to find a positive approach to offer him. I'm fortunate in having a fantastic cohort of friends in real life and online, so I appealed the them for help. I asked everyone to text, email, tweet or comment on Facebook sharing something good about their own teen experience. Here are a selection of replies -

Being taken more seriously than before

dressing like Goth/punk/indie kid and heading to a club

Everyone else is finally growing up too, so the immature ones will catch up to Luke and friendships become easier

being able to travel on your own, on buses or trains mostly, but also self-propelling to friends' houses that are further afield

discovering a huge world of music

straddling childhood and adulthood - being more confident, responsible and individual but still being able to play and be ridiculous

making your own mind up on issues, being able to think critically

learning things your parents don't know

experimenting with different personas and styles while you find what suits you

getting first jobs like paper rounds and babysitting, and spending the money however you like

And from very nearly everyone - having more freedom without the responsibility adulthood brings

I decided to make Luke a Teenager's Survival Kit, with things to get him past the tricky things opportunities to sample new things and styles, and to meet some of his changing needs. He opened it this morning and was very pleased.

To sidestep the bad bits -

No need to be rude

No need to be smelly or spotty

To experiment with different styles -

Punk

Hippy

Jock

Nerd

Cliche

Surfer

Preppy

Biker

Also a black eyeliner for Goth but I forgot to photograph that

Freedom to go places and try new stuff

New music, new film downloads

trying a new genre of books

Bus pass

Celebrating his awesomeness

Baggy T ideal for our home educated dude

Still having fun being a kid

a case I sewed for his new Kindle

A lockable box for private stuff

A decent pen to express himself with

Always be yourself. Unless you can be Batman

Always be Batman

So there we are - a big box of presents to make being a teenager ace. Which works out nicely, because Luke IS ace.